Police search for pair wanted in connection to Somerset County burglaries
Police say they are looking for 26-year-old Emmanuel Tolentino and a 17-year-old from Roselle.
Police are searching for a man wanted in connection to a string of burglaries at multiple businesses in Somerset County.
They say he's responsible for using items like a crowbar to break into local businesses and steal from cash drawers with the help of a 17-year-old from Roselle.
Police are looking for 26-year-old Emmanuel Tolentino, from Scotch Plains, who has already been arrested several times for similar crimes and charged, but police are looking for him again.
"They took cash out of the registers, they tried to break into the safe that we have, but they were not successful at breaking into the safe and then they ran out the back door," said Juli Deemer, assistant manager at Pizza Brothers in Bridgewater. "But I know the other locations were hit worse than us and things were stolen of more value."
Authorities say the burglaries and attempted burglaries happened in late November and early December, mainly in strip malls along Washington Valley Road in Bridgewater and Warren Township, U.S. Highway 22 in Green Brook and North Plainfield and U.S Highway 206 in Somerville, where the suspected thieves went back for a second time.
"They apparently got in through the back doors of almost every unit in our plaza," said Kristina Francisquini, owner of Opalescence Salon.
Business owners believe the thieves were only after cash because they left behind expensive electronics and a mess.
"My office was completely rummaged through that's how I knew someone got in our unit," said Francisquini. "It was just very disheartening."
Tolentino is facing a slew of burglary and theft charges. The Somerset County Prosecutors Office asks anyone with information to give them a call.
